las vegas flipping desperate for help!!

[Rito Altamirano]

hello BP first off i want to introduce myself. my name is rito altamirano I'm 23 from las vegas and i decided this is what i want to do with my life i just don't know where to start or who to turn to!! I've always wanted to do RE flipping since i was like 12 and i watched good ol armando montelongo on t.v , and well here i am today seeking a start. 

I've done tons of reading on the forums and learned a lot so far but i want sone experienced opinions on my current situation financially and what steps you guys or ladies would recommend for someone in my shoes. also if your in las vegas starbucks on me i'd love to meet and maybe even do some ride alongs haha! 

so heres my situation I'm 23 as of 18 my mother kinda screwed my credit using me for bills. so i sit at a terrible 560 credit score (maybe lower) :( 

i make 18 an hour full time plus bonuses made like 35k should've made like 45k but i was at a lower position jan-apr 2014, my girlfriend also lives with me and is willing to help she made 23k at her job after tax we brought home around 43k id say .so 43k actual income 

i have student loan debt of 12k 

my goals this year are to 

1. get 2 secure credit cards to start building my credit , i just paid off 3k in collections from when i was 18 used my tax return for that! agencies marked paid in full i will be disputing though. 

2. i plan to live out 2015 very frugle and spend as little money as possible. hope to save 12-15k by January 2016

3. read a lot and study flipping and buy hold deals as much as possible. 

4. hopefully buy my first flip or buy and hold by early 2016!  

[Mike H.]

My suggestion would be:

1) Get your realtors license.  You can learn a ton about the market in a much shorter period of time if you can get into more homes and meet more people. Maybe you can even network your way to finding an investor to work with.

Bottom line is that investing is going to be a part time business for you any way. You might as well start now doing the realtor thing since you don't have much money and need to get more education in.  Plus, maybe you can make some money too that way to help fun your business.

2) Listen to the podcasts as previously stated and be active on the forums. Ask your questions - you'll learn quicker and it'll help get the wheels spinning.

3) Make your first investment a house hack (aka the Brandon Special).  But seriously, that is the best way to get into investing with little money down. Buy a fixer upper at a good price and buy it as your primary residence. Live there 2 years, fix it up, and then keep it as your first rental and buy another house to go live in and do it again.

The value of house hacking is that if you are buying the house as an owner occupant, you can get loans for much less of a down payment (3 to 5%) and the rates are better too.

Plus, you'll probably find that your PITI for a home (assuming its a good deal) is far lower than what you'd be paying for rent so you'll be saving more money that can be used for your business as well.

Just a snowball effect.

4) Lastly, and as previously stated. Find a group or another investor that you can talk real estate with. One thing about investing is that its a "hard knock life" sometimes and it can be tough to stay motivated. Thats why BP and other live investor group meetings are huge. Its great seeing/hearing about other people's deals. Helps to keep you motivated.  Also nice to commiserate with other investors when tough things hit. Just to vent. They'll help you keep things in perspective.

So when you go through 3 or 4 months of nothing and just wasted time, you'll have somebody out there telling you it happens, don't worry, etc. Huge pick me ups like that can make a big difference in sticking to this or not.

One thing I will say is that, to me, the key to becoming successful in real estate investing is just sticking to it. Eventually you are going to make money and do well. There's no doubt in my mind that anybody that sticks to it is going to be successful at this. Its simply a numbers game.